.Re
13:1 ¶ And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise
up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns
ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

I
stood Most modern versions read "he stood" indicating the dragon.
I prefer the KJV reading, note below.Beast
arise This beast is a serious threat. See note
b.Up out
of the sea As the beasts in Daniel 7 da0702,3.
The prostitute, lady Babylon, is seen in chapter 17 as sitting on waters
in 1715. which
are people. The false religious power developed from among the masses of
people which had developed false ideas as they drifted away from the gospel
of Christ ac2029,30.Horns
... crowns ... heads Marks of identification. Note
c.Upon
his heads the name See note
d.

.2
And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as
the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon
gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

Like
a leopard ... bear ... lion Why the strange combination? Note.Dragon
gave him The dragon, Satan, was behind this power. Note.

.3
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly
wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

Wounded
... healed More information about the beast, note
a for verse 3. The world wondered, note.

4 And they worshipped the
dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast,
saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

Worshipped
the dragon Although the beast is the focus of attention. See the
note
for verse 4.Who
is like the beast ... war Implying that no power or religious system
dared to challenge him.

.5
And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies;
and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

Mouth
The mouth gives orders and makes laws. Before the rise of this power, the
church was essentially controlled by the Roman Emperors.Great
things .... blasphemies We know that blasphemy is speaking or acting
in the place of or against God. The "great things" would be political control.Forty
and two months A period of oppression mentioned by Daniel and several
more times in Revelation. Note a
for verse 5. See the note marking the
beginning and end of the period. For more historical confirmation, see
note
b. Some contend that a minor Roman general fulfilled Daniel's prediction
of this time period. See note
c.

6
And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name,
and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

"And I stood upon the sand
of the sea, and [literally, "and I"] saw a beast rise up out of the sea,
having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon
his heads the name of blasphemy." (Rev. 13:1)

I stood All translations
agree that John saw the beast but some have the dragon, instead of John,
standing on the sand. For the reading, "he stood. . . ." the first clause
here in 13:1 would need to be attached to the preceding verse at the end
of chapter 12. The pronoun, "he," would represent the dragon. We would
then read that the dragon was angry and went to make war with the faithful
remnant, and stood on the sand of the sea. Then John speaks, "I saw a beast
. . . ." Remember that the Greek manuscripts have no breaks between letters.
Neither are there separations between chapters and verses. Divisions were
made later by translators. For the present scene,I prefer the KJV translation
for two reasons:Timing.
If on the beach, the dragon would have been persecuting the final remnant
while or just before John watched the beast come up from the sea. The text
of Revelation is in blocks that generally do not follow in sequence. Such
is the case here. In 14:12 we saw the dragon go to fight against the remnant
Elsewhere in the prophecies, we realize that the war or persecution of
the remnant who obey the commandments (Rev. 14:12) comes at the very end,
just before the return of Christ. The issue then is who should be worshipped
(Rev.13:15). The rise of the beast (apostate church) comes much earlier
in history than does the final remnant. The flow of events with the
dragon on the beach doesn't work. There is no transition to take us back
in time.John
belongs there He has a reason to have been on the shore. His words,
"And I stood on the sand of the sea," Provide the setting for the new scene.
It is the position from which he observes the rise of both beasts described
in this chapter, the one from the sea and the one from the earth.
The mention of his location implies that the two beasts are part of one
bigger picture. Compare Dan. 8:1; Ezek 43:3.

Comparing chapters
12 and 13.

Comparing
chapters 12 and 13 helps us understand both betterStudying the
story line in chapter 12 beginning at verse 7 and the one in chapter 13,
we see that they describe many parts of the same literal events.

Story
of the dragon, Rev. 12

Story
of the beast, Rev. 13

Dragon cast out of heaven (7-9)

—

—

A beast rises from the sea. (v1)
He receives authority from the dragon. (2).[ Thus actions of the beast
are inspired by the dragon.]

As the serpent representing Satan
(9), the dragon persecutes the woman who flees for 3½ "times" or
1260 days. (14, 6)

Beast with war power (v.4) given
42 months (1260 days) to act (v.7). He makes war with the saints and given
universal authority (12)

The earth helps the woman by swallowing
the flood [of words and laws] which the dragon poured out of his (16)

A beast rises from the earth with
a dragon voice (11) and with the authority of the first beast (12).

The angry dragon goes to make war
with the remnant of the woman's seed who keep God's commandments and have
Jesus' testimony (17)

The earth beast gives breath to
the beast's image which requires all to worship it or be killed (14, 15).
The beast's mark is required to buy and sell (16, 17).

This war against the obedient
remnant is the final assault against God's faithful people before His wrath
is poured out on those who worship beast or image and who accept the mark
(14:9-11). We see the remnant of the woman's seed as those who do not receive
this wrath in 14:12 "Here is the patience of the saints.: here are they
that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."

This action of beast and image
enforced by the earth beast is the final assault against God's faithful
people before His wrath is poured out as described at the left (14:9-11).
The next scene is of Christ coming on a cloud to reap the righteous and
an angel reaping the wicked to be punished in the winepress (14:14-20).

Our next question, as we read
on is, Why is the beast coming out of the sea? After answering it, we will
explore what the beast represents.

Praise God that, although we will be
permitted to suffer to be brought close to Him, He will deliver us as He
did the remnant of Israel. We may be like Moses who chose "rather to suffer
affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season." (Heb. 11:25)

13:1, note bUp from the sea

"And I stood upon
the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven
heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads
the name of blasphemy." (Rev. 13:1)

Later in Revelation
we find the following description of the sea. "And he saith unto me, The
waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes,
and nations, and tongues." (Rev. 17:15). See on 1603
and on da0702f
for sources of imagery behind this symbol. The whore or prostitute we
will find to represent the same power as does this beast. Here the sea
is the mass of people under her control. These people are generally hostile
to the people of God. In 1102
they are symbolized as Gentiles or nations who trampled the holy city for
42 months. The children of Israel passed through the seemingly impassable
sea in their escape from Egypt. So we may expect the beast
in our present verse to have come up in a geographical area of peoples
and multitudes and nations and tongues. The people were also many in another
way. The beast arose to power by appealing to the majority who, as Jesus
said, walked in the broad way. "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide
is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many
there be which go in thereat:" (Matt. 7:13)

13:1, note cThe beast identified
by how he wore his crowns

"And I stood upon the
sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads
and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name
of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his
feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion:
and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority."
(Rev. 13:1, 2)

So the beast of chapter 13
looks almost like the dragon. We can see from the dragon's role in verse
2 however that he is not simply the dragon with a new name. What are the
differences? A significant one is the location of the crowns. I'll let
you compare the verses, then come back to continue. We also find a ten-horned
beast in the book of Daniel which we see as Imperial Rome with subjugated
kingdoms. That beast developed a little horn which uprooted three of the
ten and spoke words against the Most High da0708,
da0725.
As we continue to read this chapter in Revelation, we may see the beast
from the sea as equivalent to the horn that arose from littleness out of
the head of Daniel’s beast. Here the heads (this verse) and a mouth
(verse 5) express blasphemy (words against the Most High). In Daniel the
horn power had eyes like a man and a mouth speaking words against the Most
High. Although the sets of symbols are different, we can see the pattern.

Crowns now on
the horns Why would the crowns be moved
to the horns? (Horns enforce the will of the animal). On the dragon,
the horns were on the heads. This was in the time of Imperial Rome before
she was invaded and brought down by Germanic tribes of Europe. This is
confirmed by recalling from chapter 12 that the dragon was active when
the "man child" was born and was taken to heaven (12:5). The crowns on
the dragon's heads (12:3) shows that Satan had then worked more directly
through pagan Rome. Then the horns, as military units, were not rulers
independent of the planning source — the heads where the crowns were. Now,
as the sea beast arises, the spotlight of military rulership is on the
individual kingdoms of Europe while the controlling blasphemous power is
in the beast’s heads — the seat of strategy da0707. The woman of Revelation 17
rides a beast with 7 heads and 10 horns, but no crowns 1703b. So, to identify the sea beast,
we think of a power that arose to significant strength after 476 AD. when
historians consider that imperial Rome had completely fallen to individual
Germanic kings. Seeing the crowns on the horns helps us understand
the beast to be a power that channeled the military might of individual
kings to support it. This would have been what is termed The Holy Roman
Empire. The transition is also seen in the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream
da0242. "And in the latter time of
their kingdom [resulting from the four horns of divided Greece], when the
transgressors [pagans] are come to the full [cf. ge1516],
a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand
up [begin to reign]. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own
power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise,
and shall destroy the mighty [nations] and the holy people." (Dan. 8:23,
24)

In thinking about the blasphemous
names on the heads, consider the following statement from a speech addressed
to the pope: "Thou art the shepherd, thou art the physician, thou art the
director, thou art the husbandman; finally, thou art another god on earth."
Christopher
Marcellus, Oration in the Fifth Lateran Council, Session IV (1512).
From Latin, in Mansi SC, vol. 32, col. 761.

"Let no man deceive you by
any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away
first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth
and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped;
so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he
is God." (2 Thess. 2:3, 4)

We take no glory in identifying
the beast power, and we mean no ill to people who are part of its community.
Many of them do not realize the importance of personal Bible study. They
need our prayers. In fact for most of us, we are studying our own ancestors.
Because this power is identified numerous times in the books of Daniel
and Revelation, we know that God wants us to understand.

13:1, note dWhy was a name
on the heads?

". . . and saw a beast
rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his
horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy." (Rev. 13:1)

As I was looking over the
first two verses of this chapter planning to pull together some thoughts
for verse 2, I saw something new about the end of verse 1. Look with me
at the phrase: "and upon his heads the name of blasphemy." To open our
thoughts, let's ask why the name was on the heads. Notice that blasphemy
here is a name. We cannot ignore this word, "name," in the text. Saying
simply, "and blasphemy upon his heads," would not be the same. So what
is a name of blasphemy? It's a mark of identification but how is
it such? Turn to 14:1 and notice how the word, name, is used. "And I looked,
and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty
and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads."
We understand this to mean that the Lamb's Father's character has become
their character (confirmed by reading on). So the name of blasphemy, written
on the heads of the beast, represents its character. Between the two verses, compare
"in their foreheads" and "on his heads." "In" and "on" both translate the
same Greek word, epi, although heads and foreheads are not the same.
We may understand the forehead to represent the mind which is the seat
of character. The heads, in a sense, would also relate to the character.
I think I see one reason for the difference. Something special is emphasized
by the "heads." Why would blasphemy be on the heads of the beast?
Remember how dragon and this sea beast looked almost alike, one of the
differences being the location of the crowns? They were on the heads of
the dragon but moved to the horns for the sea beast. This would have left
the heads of the sea beast bare if they had not carried this name — the
name of blasphemy. Conclusion: the beast's leadership role is not defined
by its political domain which crowns represent but on an assumed domain
in the spiritual realm. "and upon his heads the name of blasphemy." Do you recall what the high
priest wore on his head? The sanctuary system established after the exodus
from Egypt was a pattern of the sanctuary in heaven he0805.
Aaron as high priest and Moses as political leader both represented aspects
of Christ's ministry for us. Notice a little of the instructions to Moses
in ex2831ff: First this is a beautiful
picture of salvation by grace. In the ministry of the gifts and sacrifices
the high priest represented the Son of God with His pure character. The
high priest wore the gold plate on his forehead with the words, "Holiness
to the Lord," representing that character. As the people showed their trust
in the coming Messiah whose character would be perfect, God would look
upon the righteousness of His Son represented by the special words on the
forehead of the high priest, and they, in the Messiah's place would be
accepted. On the sea beast we see a
counterfeit of this name representing the righteousness of Christ applied
in the forgiveness of our sins. The beast also promises acceptance with
God through the forgiveness of sin! But this claim is blasphemy. All this
confirms our earlier identification of the role of the beast.

Praise God that we may have the character
of the Lamb's father, instead of the beast's father's character which is
so natural for us.

13:2, note aStrange roots

"And the beast which I saw
was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his
mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his
seat, and great authority." (Rev. 13:2)

Where else do
we see the leopard, bear, and lion?
The link with Daniel here is unmistakable. "Daniel spake and said, I
saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove
upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse
one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld
till the wings thereof were plucked [Nebuchadnezzar's becoming as an animal
because he claimed glory for himself, Dan. 4], and it was lifted up from
the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was
given to it. And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it
raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it
between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much
flesh. After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon
the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and
dominion was given to it." (Dan. 7:2-6)

Did you notice that the beasts in Revelation are in reverse order compared
to those in Daniel? The beast from the sea was like the leopard but with
bear feet and a lion mouth. I see this as drawing attention to receiving
the traits as we think of genetic inheritance — more recent progenitors
first because they contribute more. What characteristics of the religious
power from the sea would have been picked up from these preceding kingdoms.
The sea beast is given a dominion like Greece, the leopard. We will see
this in verse 7. With the bear feet, the beast would be a persecuting power,
just as Medo-Persia, the bear, would devour much flesh. Daniel did not
mention the bear's feet but he did explain persecution of the saints (7:25)
as trampling the host (8:10, 13). And from Babylon, the lion, the beast
would get the mouth of arrogance and blasphemy. If you look ahead in the
text you can see the mouth, persecution, and dominion in verses 6 and 7.
The
polar bear image as others on this page except the bar at the bottom is
copyrighted by Corel Corporation. The ancient Persians would not have known
about polar bears.
You might also have noticed that something seems to be missing in the verses
I quoted from Daniel? The prophet said "I saw . . . and four great beasts
came up from the sea." I stopped quoting before the description of the
fourth beast because in our Revelation verse only the first three of the
four are mentioned. The ten horns on both the sea beast here and the fourth
beast in Dan. 7:7 lead us to wonder whether the two represent the same
power. Let's read on from where I stopped.

"After this I saw in the night
visions [introduction to a new scene], and behold a fourth beast, dreadful
and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured
and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it
was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.
I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little
horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the
roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a
mouth speaking great things." (Dan. 7:7, 8)

Lessons from the
series of beasts The lineup in Daniel is lion,
bear, leopard, dreadful beast, little horn. Looking at them this way there
are five. The first four came up from where? Check back if you forgot.
The fifth came up not as a beast but as a horn among ten already established
horns. It was accompanied by the total demise of three of the ten. So what
major historic events and powers do these represent? The Bible starts us
off by naming the second and third kingdoms in Daniel 8. This was in a
vision of future events. It occurred near the end of the time of Babylon
(8:1), the first of the kingdoms. Thus the five are Babylon, Medo-Persia,
Greece, Imperial (or pagan) Rome, and the new power that grew from littleness
out of the head of Rome which would be papal Rome. Each of the first thee powers
disappeared when a new power arose, but the situation was different with
the fourth (Rome). When the new horn took charge, only three of the small
kingdoms that had been subjugated by Imperial Rome were removed. The horn
power allowed the others to remain as political kingdoms. So, in a sense,
the beast of the sea is Daniel's fourth beast, but during the time it had
taken the character of the horn that came up. So the beast from the sea
developed from the characteristics of the three kingdoms that passed from
the scene before it. Incidentally the same pattern
of world control is seen in chapter 8. Only Babylon, soon to fall, is not
included. We have two kings plus horn with only a hint of the imperial
stage of Rome. Even in Daniel 7, the description of the ten-horned beast
and its new horn is seen as a separate vision from the descriptions of
the preceding three. This helps us see the two phases of Rome as a unit. The beast had a domain like
the leopard, the bear's feet for trampling the saints, and the lion's mouth
for arrogant words against the Most High (all also in da0725).
Let's look at the last part of our verse.

13:2, note bSatan hiding ". . . and the dragon
gave him [the beast] his power, and his seat, and great authority." (Rev.
13:2)

Here we see the transition
we were looking at in Daniel where the horn power took over from the terrible
ten-horned beast. Satan, as the dragon, works openly in paganism. When
He enters the church (any church) he works behind the scenes. When the
beast came up out of the sea he already had the blasphemous name. So the
dragon had already transferred his "power" (horns), "seat" (crowns), and
"great authority" (heads) to this appointed agent. The beast's emergence
from paganism explains many of the customs that were reinterpreted and
given Christian names. These include the worship of "saints," the Eucharist
re1408f,
Halloween, Easter (named from Eastre the Teutonic goddess of spring and
fertility), with worship facing the sun at sunrise at the venal equinox,
and bunnies and eggs. Other pagan religious practices involve hot cross
buns, veneration of a female mother goddess to substitute for the Egyptian
Isis, and even Sunday which was the pagan day for sun worship. I should add that, when the
Christian world is remembering the birth or the resurrection of Christ,
I join them, turning to the Bible record of the events although I do not
regard the days or specific ceremonies as holy because God has not made
them so. I'll let you think about these things and study the topic for
yourself. I only mention my thoughts here in connection with the idea of
the dragon turning his attributes over to the beast. As the heroes of the
Protestant Reformation realized, pagan influences have indeed come into
the Christian church. So, what power and
seat and authority did the dragon have to give? The pagan Roman empire.
A few centuries earlier we saw Jesus Christ born under this system. A pagan
emperor called for the census that took His parents to Bethlehem
lu0201.
Pagan King Herod tried to kill the baby Jesus mt0216.
Later He was asked about paying tax to Caesar mr1213.
Pilate, appointed by Rome allowed Him to be crucified mt2724.
And the Roman seal was on his Tomb mt2764.

Thank you for your patience. Let us
claim the promise that we can resist the devil, as we live from day to
day. May God bless our commitment and respect for His word.